A Droid's Afterlife
by Balin Lord of Moria
Summary: Beezee sees visions of good and bad droids in a sort of heaven/hell/limbo after his sacrifice in the fight against the buzz droids. Rated K plus just to be safe.


**Disclaimer: **I do not own the Clone Wars or any of its droids; I'm just trying to write an interesting story.

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**A Droid's Afterlife**

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The artificial afterlife is a strange place, M5-BZ thinks to himself as he passes on, but it certainly seems to have a sense of humor, too.

How is it that an artificial life form can remain conscious after its "death," especially considering the fact that Beezee had lost his memory banks just so Colonel Gascon could use him as a command center? And isn't there supposed to be a state of "retaining consciousness," as some Jedi had occasionally talked about, where they could communicate with the physically living?

Evidently, the afterlife for a droid was a place for entertainment and excitement. Joyful excitement for good droids, and miserable for bad ones.

He knows this because there is a playground-like realm where lots of good, Republic droids are playing together where he has entered this weird after-existence. Astromechs, protocol droids, medical droids, and many more are everywhere to be seen.

Beezee can see almost a dozen droids he recognizes from the Battle of the Kaliida Nebula, the astromechs of Shadow Squadron, partying in what he can only assume is a droid's paradise together. R4-T5, clone pilot Contrail's mech, is dancing about with R5-O15, and R7-F5 is making noises with a droid noisemaker that shoots out from the slot beneath his one eye. It's certainly interesting how droids can have fun, even in the afterlife.

In another part of this strange limbo, he can see Mace Windu's busted mech, R8-B7, which seems to still be in a panic from when those gundarks had ripped him apart, as evidenced by how he kept running to and fro, never stopping or relaxing at all. Beezee rolls over to him in an attempt to make conversation, or at least calm him down. Areight warbles in a panic and begs Beezee to go away. Beezee relates his adventure with D-Squad, how he had served as a command center for a little man named Meebur Gascon, and how he had opened an airlock to suck a multitude of buzz droids into deep hyperspace and saved his fellow mechs, though he himself had died in the attempt.

This, however, only serves to increase Areight's anxiety. He makes a screaming sound not unlike that of R2-D2, and Beezee jerks back in surprise. He shows the panicked purple droid his hollowed out head with what had served as a command center for the Zilkin Colonel, but Areight howls in alarm and makes a run for it. So much for showing some deeds of bravery to a scaredy-cat like him, Beezee thinks as Areight rams into other, more fun-loving droids, earning a lot of annoyed ire from those other droids who just want to have fun. Oh, well, maybe Areight will get over it one day.

Beezee decides to explore this place further, and he comes, suddenly, to a place full of volcanoes, which reminds him of how the Jedi once described the planet Mustafar. He sees and hears a clamor of droids here, but they are not having fun at all. Millions of battle droids are hopping about from foot to foot, complaining about how their feet keep melting over and over again, and how much it hurts. Beezee can't help but feel amused at how the Separatist foot soldiers are wallowing in their own filth. B1's are whining and kicking, B2's are acting similarly, droidekas can never stop rolling as they are rolling on searing metal, crab droids look like they're in a dance studio, and the rest of the droids are either doing their own "dancing," or being shot out of the sky by volcanic lava bursts.

Then, suddenly, he sees the buzz droids he had sucked into space come clattering onto the hot ground, with many of them falling in the lava rivers. They shriek in alarm as they make contact, and they see and recognize Beezee as the droid that had killed them all. They try to charge him, but an invisible wall keeps them away from the heroic agromech droid, making sure that Beezee is not affected by the flames and the heat. The buzz droids growl at him in frustration, but there is nothing they can do about it. They start to pop like popcorn as the heat boils their servomotors, and Beezee decides he has seen enough of this.

On his way out, though, to his surprise, he thinks he hears a mech droid scream. He looks around, and there is that treacherous astromech that almost got R2-D2 and Anakin Skywalker killed: R3-S6, or "Goldie," or even "Stubby." He is evidently suffering like the rest of the droids in this part of the netherworld, but unlike the battle droids, he's actually whistling and laughing in droid language. Beezee soon interprets Goldie's chatter as mockery of Artoo. He is saying that Artoo's dangerous adventures are far from over, and that one day, the rest of D-Squad will be with him.

Beezee, however, tells Goldie the difference between a brave hero and a villainous coward, and that he, himself, will not have to enter the hellfire, ever, and neither will the other members of D-Squad, because they are brave heroes, and Goldie is a coward and a villain.

A light shines from seemingly nowhere just then, and it shows that sometime in the future, QT-KT, U9-C4, and WAC-47 will be safe in the heavenly playground, and a long time afterwards, so will R2-D2. It also displays a vision of D-Squad's heroic actions during their secret mission, and how they had become Republic legends, while all Goldie had done was to endanger the Chosen One and Artoo in his attempt to spy for the vicious General Grievous.

Goldie howls a mech droid howl as the currents of hell pull him back in to its center, and Beezee never sees him again. Satisfied, Beezee goes back to the heaven where his pals are still playing around and joins in the fun. He meets more surprises along the way, including one good B1 battle droid who calls himself Coppertop. Coppertop explains that he was freed from his battle directives somehow, and had chosen his own path in life, as a pacifist droid who helped people.

Beezee also recognizes three blue pilot battle droids, OOM-10, and his two partners, who once served as troops for Artoo during a mission on Lola Sayu. It amazes Beezee how lucky Artoo has been to work with so many other droids, as well as being their leader, and OOM-10 tells him that he and his "men" owe it to Artoo for saving them from the damnation of so many of the other battle droids. They evidently are proud and happy to have such a good and generous leader.

And as eternity goes by, Beezee becomes acquainted with more droids, in the limbo as well as in the playground, and hopes that the entirety of D-Squad will join him one day, as the vision had said.


End file.
